Classic 3 Ingredient Southern Biscuits ~WHITE LILY GIVEAWAY~

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Linda Kay Stanley, whose comment was chosen at random to win. Please enjoy the recipe below (and the wonderful memories in the comments) and thanks for being such a great part of the Southern Plate Family!

You’d be hard pressed to visit the South and not see biscuits at many meals. We have them for breakfast, as the base of a sandwich at lunch, and often as the main bread at dinner. Many restaurants you visit are likely to plop down a plate of warm biscuits before even taking your order! My grandmother grew up during very difficult times, and often a biscuit and some gravy was all that kept them from starving.

Recognizing the beloved heritage of biscuits among Southern families, White Lily created a wonderful campaign to encourage folks to get back to basics and share the easily acquired skill of biscuit making with others. I’m honored to have been chosen as a White Lily Ambassador to help do just that.

Today I’ll be sharing White Lily’s classic, 3 ingredient, Southern biscuit with you and I’d like to hear your biscuit memories, too! Who taught you how to make biscuits? Who made the biscuits in your family? Maybe you’ve never had a biscuit or to you a “biscuit” is what we think of as a cookie – that’s just fine, too.

Share a memory with us in the comments on this post and be entered to win a box full of White Lily surprises, including a Save The Biscuit t shirt!

I’ll choose a winner at random next Monday morning (March 3) and contact them by email as well as announce it here on this post. What are you waiting for? Share a memory today, then bake up some memories in the kitchen.

Let’s hop to it!

Ingredients for these biscuits are as simple as can be: Self Rising Flour, Shortening, and Milk or Buttermilk.

Place flour into a medium sized bowl. Add shortening. Cut in with a fork or pastry cutter.

I used to always use a fork but my old hands aren’t as young as they once were and old Uncle Arthur appreciates the times when I dig my pastry cutter out.

It will look like this when you are done.

Not incredibly different but you won’t be able to really see the shortening anymore once it is incorporated into the flour.

Most recipes will tell you to cut the shortening into the flour until it resembles peas. I’ve never, in my life, seen peas that looked like this, or a flour/shortening mixture that looked like peas.

It must have been a high imagination day when that analogy was thought up.

Add in your milk.

Now you’ll notice that the recipe at the bottom has a range when it comes to how much milk to add. Sometimes, your flour will need a little more, sometimes a little less. I could have used a little more in this tutorial but this will be just fine.

Biscuits are really hard to mess up, so if yours end up a little dry, no worries, they’ll still be delicious! They’ll actually absorb honey and butter a little better 😉

My daddy used to make hockey pucks on Sunday morning but they still tasted good and we gobbled ’em all down! What’s even better, if there were any left we could use them as weapons on each other out in the back yard.

Always a plus side…

Stir that milk in until your dough starts to stick together good.

Sprinkle flour onto a surface – I like to lay out a piece of waxed paper and sprinkle it on top of that for easy clean up later.

In case you’re wondering, this is a Cinderella Yellow Amish Butterprint Pyrex bowl.

“Cinderella” is the style of the bowl and “Amish Butterprint” is the name of the pattern. You can learn more about Pyrex by clicking here.

Dump your dough out onto the floured surface.

Now you need to knead it.

However, you don’t want to over knead it or you’ll end up with my Daddy’s hockey pucks.

I tell my kids “In biscuits, as in relationships, it’s never good to be too kneady.”

To avoid over-kneading, I press my dough into a ball, and then press it out flat (like below).

I do this no more than two or three times.

Then, I cut them 🙂

With a biscuit cutter or small glass that has been dipped into flour to keep the cut biscuits from sticking to it.

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and place your cut biscuits in it, making sure the sides touch. This helps them to rise because they support each other as they bake and rise up.

I tell my kids “You want them touching because biscuits are like good friends, they help each other rise up.”

Life wisdom from biscuit making – it happens 🙂

Bake these at 500 for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Remove from oven and brush tops with melted butter, if you’d like. And seriously, you just made homemade biscuits. Why would you not brush the tops with melted butter?

Place flour into mixing bowl and cut in shortening until well incorporated. Stir in just enough milk until dough leaves the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead two or three times. Roll dough out to ½ inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter or small glass that has been dipped in flour. Place biscuits onto prepared baking sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

*If using All Purpose Flour, combine two cups of flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and one teaspoon of salt before cutting in shortening. Follow the rest of the directions as written.

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Who taught you how to make biscuits? Who made the biscuits in your family? Maybe you’ve never had a biscuit or to you a “biscuit” is what we think of as a cookie – that’s just fine, too.

Share a memory with us in the comments on this post and be entered to win a box full of White Lily surprises, including a Save The Biscuit t shirt!

I’ll draw a winner Monday Morning (March 3, 2014) at random.

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Linda Kay Stanley, whose comment was chosen at random to win. Please enjoy the recipe (and the wonderful memories in the comments) and thanks for being such a great part of the Southern Plate Family!

Disclaimer: This post was somewhat sponsored by White Lily. I say somewhat because I enjoyed doing it and am so looking forward to reading y’alls comments!! Please pass on your cooking skills to others. You can start with your immediate family and move on from there to friends, community, and anyone who happens to want to learn what you have to offer. Doing so will not only make the world a better place, but it will save college kids from a lifetime of ramen noodles 🙂 The winner chosen at random using random.org and will have three days to reply to email in order to claim prize. At the end of three days with no response, another winner will be chosen – which is something I hate to do so if you enter be sure you check back and see if you won so you can dig through that spam folder. And WOW, have I ever been getting a lot of spam lately, have you? Oh well, that is a topic for another day. Don’t really answer that in the comments, just share a biscuit memory so you can be entered. Now live long and prosper and all that…